As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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I am planning a scavenger hunt through wdw for my daughters. They have to use their cameras and take a pic of each thing they find from the list. So far I have hidden mickeys from each park, the center of wdw at epcot, Devine, singing in the rain umbrella at hs, talking trash can at Epcot, several characters, paw prints in front of Tony's, a Viking helmet, a tarantula in line que for jungle cruise and the liberty bell. Any other suggestions?
We do the same thing except we make ours a contest. We right down enough character names so the each person will draw 10 names. We mix easy ones with hard ones and then on the plane we draw the names out a bag and each person has to find and take a pic with their 10 names. Whoever gets the most or finds their 10 first gets an extra souvenir. My suggestion would be to find a name that matches their name on the tiles walking into MK. (first name only as last would be too hard)
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When I do scavenger hunts, i choose some things that are a little open ended as well. Like I will say "something red" or "balloons" or "a dance" ... it leaves things open to interpretation and is fun to see what they come up with for them. This might not work as well if it's a contest though, this is better for just being creative.
Okay, well, you can do that, of course, but why not do Epcot's Perry the Platypus scavenger-hunt type secret agent missions there instead and save yourself a lot of effort?
When we were at WDW last, they were Kim Possible missions. You picked up a "Kimmunicator" (looked like a flip-open cell phone) gadget that gave you a choice of missions, and you'd get a clue about where to go and a guess-what-it-means series of hints on what to do that took you all over World Showcase.
Some involved pointing your Kimmunicator at something and pressing a button, and things would make noise and move or light up. We startled several people standing near such when we'd make them do whatever they did and got used to answering, "Did YOU do that? How'd you do it? We want one of those, too. Where'd you get it?"
For instance, one clue took us to the British teashop where we were to go to the CM cashier and say, "Danger is my cup of tea." I expect she thought a shaved-headed middle-aged guy in a scooter doing a Kim Possible mission was a bit peculiar, but she simply smiled, asked if we were having fun and gave us a free teabag.
Finding out where to get going with the new Perry the Platypus missions is definitely on our list when we get to WDW next year. We had so much fun with the Kim Possibles that we hated to have to quit and were nearly late for our dinner ADR as a result.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
I do really like the open ended ones also. They would appeal to my youngest a lot. She has some attention problems and a hard time reading (dyslexic). I cannot give her too many hard to read clues. She will lose interest before she even finishes reading it! Thanks for the idea.
I did look into the perry the platypus thing and considering doing both. The reason I am doing the scavenger hunt on my own is because my daughters have been reading a lot about the "things you didnt know about wdw". They want to find everything that they read about so I thought I would make a game of it. My oldest is really into the hidden mickeys right now. We have been there enough times that they are starting to be interested in things besides just rides and characters. I just thought it would be fun!! I am looking forward to finding some of these things also!!!
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I did look into the perry the platypus thing and considering doing both. The reason I am doing the scavenger hunt on my own is because my daughters have been reading a lot about the "things you didnt know about wdw". They want to find everything that they read about so I thought I would make a game of it.
Certainly wouldn't discourage you from supporting their desire to learn about WDW since I'm a retired teacher. Good for you for being willing to put out the effort it will require to set up a scavenger hunt created just for them!
Looks like I was preaching to the choir about the "Agent P" mishes, huh? Oh, well, sorry 'bout that, and perhaps the info will be helpful for someone else reading your thread who didn't know about those.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
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I try to make all of their trips educational as well. My oldest was the only one in her kindergarten class that knew the little mermaid was a book by hans Christian Anderson. ( not sure if his name is spelled correctly) She is 11 now, but she can come up with many things she has learned while at wdw!
I guess I should have mentioned that reason she knows the little mermaid book is because it is in the Norway store at Epcot. She was floored to find out it was not just another story by Disney. She still loved the little mermaid movie!!